Bulletproof protective body armor

ABSTRACT

A bulletproof body armor formed of a pad made of a number of loose sheets woven of heavy gauge nylon threads, with the pad being enclosed within a cloth envelope having a pocket formed therein in the plane of said pad. A semi-flexible metal insert plate is removably arranged within said pocket. The plate comprises a number of plate sections arranged in a common plane, in edge-to-edge contact, one above the other. Each of the edgeto-edge joints is covered by an overlapping cover plate. A flexible cloth-like sheet covers and is adhesively secured to the exposed surfaces of the plate sections to secure them together and permit flexing of the plate transversely to the joints.

UnitedstatsPatem 1191 Davis BULLETPROOF PROTECTIVE BODY ARMOR [76]Inventor: Richard C. Davis, Box 581, Central Lake, Mich. 49622 [22]Filed: Oct. 31, 1973 [211 App]. No.2 411,318

Related u.s. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No.251,077, May 8,1972, Pat. No.

52 US. Cl. 2/2.s, 161/404 [51] Int. Cl. F4lh 1/02 [58] Field of Search2/2.5; 161/404 [56] References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,758,2965/1930 Schaumann 2/2.5 X 2,052,684 9/1936 Wisbrod 2/2.5 3,001,900 9/1961Frieder et a1. 2/2.5 3,061,839 11/1962 Foster.... 2/2.5 3,130,414 4/1964Bailey etal. 2/2.s 3,409,907 11/1968 Barratt 2/2.5

1 51 Aug. 20, 1974 5/1971 Tamura 2/2.5

3,577,836 3,616,115 10/1971 Klimmek ..161/404X 3,725,173 4/1973 Johnsonet al 161/404 X Primary Examiner-Alfred R. Guest 1 Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Cullen, Settle, Sloman & Cantor 57 ABSTRACT A bulletproof bodyarmor formed ofa pad made of a number of loose sheets woven of heavygauge nylon threads, with the pad being enclosed within a cloth envelopehaving a pocket formed therein in the plane of said pad. A semi-flexiblemetal insert plate is removably arranged within said pocket. The platecomprises a number of plate sections arranged in a common plane, inedg'e-to-edge contact, one above the other. Each of the edge-to-edgejoints is covered by an over- 5 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures 1 BULLETPROOFPROTECTIVE BODY ARMOR PARENT APPLICATION This application is both adivisional and continuation-in-part of my prior application, Ser. No.251,077 filed May 8, 1972, now US. Pat. No..3,783,449.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Bulletproof protective armor-for personal use byhuman beings, has been made of metal or suitable plastic, bulletresistant, plates fastened together in some way to fit around thewearersbody, and particularly his torso. Such type armor has been very heavyand stiff, thus making it extremely uncomfortable for wear.

In addition, the bullet stopping capabilities of such the envelopepocket to increase his protection and yet still be able to relativelyeasily move due to the semi-flexibility of the plate.

' These and other objects and advantages of this invention will becomeapparent, upon reading the following description, of which the attacheddrawings form a part.

At best, they could have been worn only for a short time and even then,the limitations on weight have resulted in armor which in fact, will notstop high powered rifle or pistol bullets or those tired at very closerange, such as,point blank or virtually against the armor.

Thus, there is a need for a relatively lightweight, flexible, easilyworn, body armor particularly for use by such class of persons as policeofficers during normal or relatively known to be dangerous duties andwhich are capable of stopping most type bullets and whose bulletstopping capacity can be increased at times of increased danger. Moreparticularly, the invention herein relatesto a'body protective armorinsert plate, for adding to a lighterweight armor which can be normallyworn by a person. I

SUMMARY OF INvENTIoN dozen layers and probably optimumly in the order of18 layers or so, the pad will stop most commonbullets,

I even at point blank range of only a few inches between the muzzle ofthe fire arm and the pad. For stopping the few types of more highpowered or so-called armor piercing bullets, the added semi-flexiblemetal plate insert, may be used to cooperate with the pad in stoppingeven these more powerful types of bullets.

The armor, without the metal plate insert, is sufficiently lightweight,e.g., about 5 pounds, and is suffi- DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1illustrates a perspective view of a form of the protective armor hereinwhich may be worn by a person for protecting the front and rear of historso.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view, taken in the direction ofarrows 2-2 of FIG. 1 and schematically showing the protective insertmetal plate.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the cloth blank used for forming the padcontaining envelope.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of one section, including the outerenvelope, of the armor and illustrates the metal insert plate beinginserted therein.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view, enlarged and fragmentary, of thebulletproof pad.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the pad per se.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 7-7 ofFIG. 1, to an enlarged scale, including schematically showing the metalinsert.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged, cross-sectional perspective view of the metalinsert.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a portion of the insert.

FIG. 10 is a view similar to FIG. 9, but showing a modification.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the plate sections forming themodification of FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to FIG. I, the bulletproof protectivearmor, generally designated as 10, may be made with a front body sectionII and a rear body protective section 12 connected together by means ofsuitable shoulder straps 13, which fit over the shoulders ofthe wearerfor In this form of armor, each protective section is made of aclothenvelope 15 (see FIGS. 2, 4 and 7) which may be made of a singlepiece of cloth folded in half, to form a front and rear cloth bodycovering portion 16, with upwardly extending portions 17. The adjacentedges 18 of the body portion part 16 and extensions 17 may be stitchedtogether by suitable stitching. Thereafter, the extensions 17 arereversely tucked into the envelope to form an upwardly opening centralpocket 19 for removably receiving a metal insert plate 20 for increasingthe protective capabilities of the armor when 1 needed.

of the cloth with is woven out of heavy gauge, linearly I oriented,nylon thread, with a tight weave. By either ciently flexible so as tomove with the wearer's body,

that it may be normally worn by police officers and others who areengaged in relatively dangerous activity where bullets and similarmissiles may be expected, but at unexpected times. However, in moredangerous appearing situations, the wearer may insert the plate intosuitably folding the cloth back and forth, or else by the use ofsuitable stitching, the sheets or layers making up the pad are connectedtogether along an edge 32 and are otherwise substantially free ofconnection so as to be relatively flexible, one sheet relative to thenext. Al-

though some additional stitching or fastening may be needed to keep thesheets properly together, e.g., along other edges, the major portions ofeach of the sheets are free to individually flex or move to aconsiderable extent. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the pad forminglayers or sheets may be stitched together by stitches 24 at their lowercorners and also by stitches 25 at their upper corners which alsoconnect the ends of the shoulder straps to the pad, which stitches maybe further extended to also connect the envelope to the pad.

The number of layers or sheets of cloth may be varied to meet specificrequirements. By way of example, 17 to 18 layers formed of stretch orlinearly oriented nylon of approximately I050 denier, will stop a 45caliber bullet fired from a pistol with the muzzle located right at thepad surface. Within a range of a few inches up to a foot, virtually allhand gun bullets as well as many rifle bullets will be stopped. Thisincludes such relatively high powered weapons as a 357 magnum, as wellas low powered 22 caliber rifle bullets, 38 caliber pistol bullets, andthe like. For protection against so called high speed or armor piercingtype bullets, the metal plate may be inserted, as described above,giving the additional stopping ability needed for these types ofmissiles.

The specific type of nylon used may vary as may the degree of linearorientation, and this will affect the number of layers required,requiring the addition of one or more layers to be added or perhapsremoved, as

the case may be.

Apparently, the nylon material absorbs the energy of the bullet orsimilar missile in the form of heat energy which may melt or partiallymelt the points of impact and the closely surrounding areas of the pad,thus stopping the bullet before actual penetration. In many cases, thebullet will simply bounce off the pad, without penetrating at all.

The pad when assembled into the bulletproof armor, in a size suitable toprotect the torso of a human being, may be on the order of about 9inches by l4 /2 inches in size, with a thickness of approximately /2inch, giving a weight of approximately 2% pounds per armor sections.Thus, the entire armor may weight something on the order of less thanfive pounds.

Of course, the size of the armor may be increased substantially to covermore of the body of the wearer, in which case there will be some slightadditional weight. Also, the armor may be so shaped as to protectinanimate objects. The armor itself is sufficiently lightweight andflexible that it may be comfortably worn by such persons as policeofficers during even normal. as well as dangerous assignments, forprotecting the wearer at all times.

Preferably, the envelope is made of the same cloth material as is thepad, thus providing two additional layers to the pad. Also, the belt 14may be secured to the envelope and the ends of the belt secured togetherby stitching Velcro" type cloth patches 26 in the appropriate places.This conventional cloth is formed with napped fibers which interengageto secure opposing patches together.

To make the insert plate flexible enough to bend and conform to thecurvature of the wearer's body, it is formed of a number of edge to edgealigned pairs of thin steel plate sections 27-28 (e'.g;, inch thick),with the joints between the pairs overlapped by a narrower cover plate29. All of the plates are enclosed within a flexible cloth covermaterial 30 adhesively secured to the exposed surfaces of the plates.Thus, the overlapped, aligned plate sections may flex or move relativeto the original flat plane of the insert as indicated in dotted lines inFIG. 8. The insert is thereby relatively flexible in the directiontransverse to the joints.

In the modification of FIGS. 10 and 11, two rows of plate sections areused to form the insert plate 20a,

with the horizontally extending edge to edge joints of the plates 33 ofone row being covered by the plates 34 of the second row. The plates 33and 34 may all be of the same size, e.g., 3 inches high by 6 inches wideby about Vs inch thickness. Thus, the joints of one row are covered byand in face to face contact with the plates of the opposite row. Shorterplates 35 at the upper and lower ends of the row formed by plates 34equalize the height of the two rows. The plates are covered by cloth orcloth-like material, e.g., wide plastic adhesive tape, as above.

The double thickness plates resist high powered bullets even at thejoints. Yet the overall insert plate is semi-flexible, that is, can bebent transversely of the joints, as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 10,due to the flexible covering 30.

' Having fully described an operative embodiment of this invention, Inow claim:

1. A semi-flexible, bulletproof metal plate, comprismg:

a number of equal size, first, thin, metal plate sections arranged inedge to edge contact, one above the other, in a common plane;

a number of equal size, second thin metal cover plate sections arrangedone above the other in a common plane, and each overlapping, in face toface contact with, and extending the length of the edge to edge jointsbetween each adjacent pair of said first plate sections;

a flexible cloth-like covering material covering the exposed surfaces ofsaid first and second sections and adhered thereto and thereby holdingthe sections together;

whereby said metal plate may be flexibly curved in a directiontransverse to said joints.

2. A construction as defined in claim 1, and said second, cover platesections being considerably narrower, in the direction transverse to theedge to edge joints than said first metal plate sections, therebyexposing surface portions of the first metal plate sections between eachadjacent pair of said second cover plate sections.

3. A construction as defined in claim 1 and wherein the adjacent edgesof each adjacent pair of said second cover plate sections are likewisearranged in edge to edge contact to thereby form edge to edge jointsextending parallel to but offset relative to the edge to edge joints ofthe first plate sections so that each of the joints of the second coverplate sections are overlapped and covered by a first plate section.

4. In a bulletproof protective armor comprising a relatively flexiblepad formed of a number of sheets, such as one to two dozen sheetsapproximately, of cloth arranged in face to face relationship andsecured together with major portions of the sheets being substantiallyfree of positive securement together for relative flexing of each of thesheets, and said cloth being of a tightly woven material formed of aheavy, nylon type thread; and said pad being encased within a flat,cloth-like envelope; and a pocket formed within the envelope and openingatone edge thereof, with the pocket being arranged parallel to the padsheets; and a metal insert plate removably arranged within said pocket;the improvement comprising:

said metal plate being formedof a number of equal size, first thin,metal plate sections arranged in edge to edge contact, one above theother, in a common plane; and a number of equal size, second, thin metalcover plate sections arranged one above the other in a common plane, andeach overlapping, in face to face contact with, and extending the lengthof the edge to edge joints between each adjacent pair of said firstplate sections;

and a flexible cloth-like covering material covering the exposedsurfaces of said first and second sections and adhered thereto andthereby holding the along the upper edge of said envelope.

1. A semi-flexible, bulletproof metal plate, comprising: a number ofequal size, first, thin, metal plate sections arranged in edge to edgecontact, one above the other, in a common plane; a number of equal size,second thin metal cover plate sections arranged one above the other in acommon plane, and each overlapping, in face to face contact with, andextending the length of the edge to edge joints between each adjacentpair of said first plate sections; a flexible cloth-like coveringmaterial covering the exposed surfaces of said first and second sectionsand adhered thereto and thereby holding the sections together; wherebysaid metal plate may be flexibly curved in a direction transverse tosaid joints.
 2. A construction as defined in claim 1, and said second,cover plate sections being considerably narrower, in the directiontransverse to the edge to edge joints than said first metal platesections, thereby exposing surface portions of the first metal platesections between each adjacent pair of said second cover plate sections.3. A construction as defined in claim 1 and wherein the adjacent edgesof each adjacent pair of said second cover plate sections are likewisearranged in edge to edge contact to thereby form edge to edge jointsextending parallel to but offset relative to the edge to edge joints ofthe first plate sections so that each of the joints of the second coverplate sections are overlapped and covered by a first plate section. 4.In a bulletproof protective armor comprising a relatively flexible padformed of a number of sheets, such as one to two dozen sheetsapproximately, of cloth arranged in face to face relationship andsecured together with major portions of the sheets being substantiallyfree of positive securement together for relative flexing of each of thesheets, and said cloth being of a tightly woven material formed of aheavy, nylon type thread; and said pad being encased within a flat,cloth-like envelope; and a pocket formed within the envelope and openingat one edge thereof, with the pocket being arranged parallel to the padsheets; and a metal insert plate removably arranged within said pocket;the improvement comprising: said metal plate being formed of a number ofequal size, first thin, metal plate sections arranged in edge to edgecontact, one above the other, in a common plane; and a number of equalsize, second, thin metal cover plate sections arranged one above theother in a common plane, and each overlapping, in face to face contactwith, and extending the length of the edge to edge joints between eachadjacent pair of said first plate sections; and a flexible cloth-likecovering material covering the exposed surfaces of said first and secondsections and adhered thereto and thereby holding the sections together;whereby said metal plate and the armor portion containing said metalplate may be flexibly curved in a direction transverse to said joints.5. A construction as defined in claim 4 and including support means forsupporting the armor upon a human torso, in a roughly vertical plane,with said pocket arranged roughly vertically and approximately centrallyof the side edges forming said envelope and opening along the upper edgeof said envelope.